Play calling summed up: If it works, it’s it’s a good call. Joe Flacco Ravens Jersey . If it doesn’t, it’s a bad call. I was going to talk more about formations this week, but after watching some of the games this week, I wanted to talk about play calling. I have never had a problem calling plays in a game, whether it was an early season game or a Grey Cup. You study film, make decisions based on what your players can do and practice these concepts in game situations. Then, you call the game and adapt as you see things unfold. Let’s review how coaches prepare to call plays throughout the week. The coaches will watch game videos that are sorted by many situations that happen throughout the course of a game. Here are examples of a few common video reports that are studied offensively: 1st and 10 start of a Drive 1st and 10 within a drive 1st and 10 after a turnover 2nd and Short 2nd and Medium 2nd and Long 2nd and Extra Long Backed up Red Zone Goal line Stunts Dogs Blitzes 2 Back Formations 1 Back formations 2 TE sets 2 Point plays Zone Read plays against You watch the film to see deficiencies, patterns or tendencies that you can use against your opponent. You then categorize your game plan by these situations and practice them throughout the week versus as many different scenarios as possible. The coaches will then decide how well the plays worked and whether or not they will make the game plan. There is a game plan meeting in which the plays are organized by the categories and put down into the play call sheet. Strange as it sounds, but this was the most stressful part of the week for me as a play-caller. This is when you make the decisions that would be called in the game, like the two-point play and the first play from the goal line or the first play of overtime. Once the call sheet was done, I brought all the QBs and coaches back to go over it. The starting QB had the freedom to reorganize the plays or veto ones with which he was not comfortable. Once the game plan is settled, the players walk through everything by situation and are prepared for what to expect game day. Most teams do a very thorough job of preparing the players. As you begin to call the game, you evaluate whether or not the team is playing the way you saw in the breakdowns. You will adapt the game plan and your play calling based on a few factors - weather, injuries to you and the opponent’s players and the evaluations of the game plan calls after each series. You have to get a good feel for what the defence is trying to do against you and how they will attack you. If you can understand that, then calling the game is easy. You should be able to put players in a position to be successful. Understand this, that is all a play-caller can do: put the players in the best position to be successful. The rest of a play’s success depends on the players executing. A coach once said that “there are no great play calls, there is only great execution. I like that line. I am sure that when Doug Flutie played, he made a lot of play calls into good plays because he was a tremendous player who made plays. What I usually see from the fans and, at times the media (which I am now a part of), is this very simple evaluation of play calling. If the plays works, it was a good call and if the play does not work, it was a bad call. Oftentimes, the same play is run two or three times with success in a game and nothing is said and, then, the fourth time if it does not work, it becomes a bad play call. Most play-callers don’t have the ability to see into the future like the people who watch the games. You will hardly hear someone say after a successful play that they thought that was a terrible play call. Another thing I struggle with is when I hear people say that they felt the QB was “off his reads or wasn’t following his reads. How would they know? It would be a very select few who did know what the coach is teaching him. Let’s talk about some plays and review them. In the Toronto win over the Tiger-Cats, a couple of plays were talked about as bad calls. The Tiger-Cats were up by 17 points with a minute left in the third quarter and they ran a speed sweep and then tried a reverse off of it. The execution of the exchange between the two receivers was bad and resulted in a fumble and a turnover. The Argos scored off the turnover and it helped start the Argos rally for the win. A lot of people have said that the play was a terrible call based on the fact that there are two exchanges and an exchange between two receivers. A lot of people say that with a big lead, why call a play that is so-called high risk? For me, high risk would be calling plays that you haven’t practiced or plays with which the players are not comfortable. I may not have called that play in that situation, but I also know that I don’t label it as a bad play call just because it doesn’t work. In 2009, as offensive coordinator for the Roughriders, up by 21 points in the third quarter, I called a double reverse pass that scored a touchdown. I felt that with a lead was the time to attack and go with the unexpected. Andy Fantuz caught a TD from Jason Armstead and we continued to score en route to a big win over the Blue Bombers. The play worked and, if it didn’t, it’s okay. The defence needs to get back on the field and stop the offence from scoring. People always are talking about offences that are not creative or imaginative enough, but when you call a creative play that is not successful, people don’t like the call. Well, the Ticats were trying to be creative and imaginative and the play did not work and the people said the call was bad. You have to be confident enough to call what you believe in and up 17 points with 16 minutes left is not enough of a lead to start playing the game conservatively. Especially not when youre facing Ricky Ray. Again, I am not sure if I would have made that particular call because I don’t have all the information related to it, but I won’t condemn the call, either. Do you know what the highest scoring play and the play that gains the most yards in the CFL is each year? It is the missed field goal return. That play yields the most returns and often leads to a TD because of the returner having the width of the field and many offensive lineman who aren’t used to covering kicks. Understanding this information when I was the head coach for Winnipeg in 2010 and Toronto lined up to kick a 55-plus-yard field goal, I chose to have our dynamic returner, Jovon Johnson, return the kick if missed and instructed the players to block by calling a return. One player missed his block and Johnson was tackled around the 25-yard line. The media asked me after the game why I didnt take the single and get the ball at the 55-yard line. Well, based on the information I had in my experience and the previous information about missed field goal returns, a return - especially one from the 55-yard line - was the best decision. I still believe the decision was right based on the facts and information but the execution was not and people tend to base their opinion on the results alone. Later in the Toronto game from last week, Hamilton was beat for a TD by Chad Owens and he was being covered by Erik Harris, who is technically called a linebacker, even though those strong side LBs (SAM) are defensive backs. People asked why Chad Owens got matched up on a LB? How could you blitz in that situation? First of all, Erik Harris is playing the SAM LB. I think the term LB makes people think that the situation of Owens being covered by Harris never happens. If Chad Owens lined up as the number-three receiver to the field or boundary the entire game, he would be covered by Harris. Watching the film, there were other times that Harris was aligned over Owens in man coverage. Erik was beaten by alignment because they were in a blitz coverage, which has the defensive backs aligned inside of the receiver to prevent giving up the inside throw on account of having no help inside. Owens motioned inside and was taken by the inside defender and then ran away to the corner. No DB on the roster would have been able to make the play when they were in that coverage. The problem was, when you pressure the QB without safety help, the DBs are on an island with inside leverage. The extra blitzer has to get to the QB and force an early throw, disrupt the throw or sack the QB. I believe from seeing the film that Craig Butler did not get home quickly enough to pressure the QB. Also, the other defensive players who were in one-on-one pass rush situations did not get home, either. So that is why the defensive play did not execute and allowed Owens to leverage his coverage person and score. Is it a bad call? If the blitz got home to the QB, we aren’t even talking about it right now. When one player fails, they all fail. That is the beauty of being a team. The other question that everyone asked was why would you call a blitz against Ricky Ray? Ray had 90 seconds to be able to drive and take the lead. That is plenty of time for him to march down and score. He is as good at exploiting zone coverage as anyone in the game today, so sitting in zone is not the answer for the rest of the game. If the Ticats stayed in zone the whole time and the Argos drove the length of the field and scored, people would have asked why didn’t you pressure the QB? This was a factor in the loss, but not the only factor. Hamilton still had a minute to get in field goal range to win, but fumbled the snap and turned the ball over. There are certainly plays that I do not agree with calling, but they are based on something more or less than the results alone. I also understand that when players execute, the plays called tend to work and lack of success is not only from the play call alone. As a coach, I tried to blame myself for every time we didnt have success. Did we practice the play enough? Was it taught well enough? Did I call it from the best protection possible? Should I have called it so the QB would be rolling to the right to his throwing arm instead of against his body? The coach should exhaust every possible scenario before blaming the lack of execution on the players. The play-caller should not worry about the noise of people questioning play-calling. It’s part of the job, so forget about it. I think everyone else needs to dig deeper before they say this play was good and this play was bad. As for this article, it is really easy to say it worked or it did not! Miles Boykin Jersey .Stanton suffered fractures in his face and other injuries when he was hit by a pitch Sept. 11. The Marlins are confident hell fully recover and be ready for spring training, and they hope to reach a long-term agreement with him. Marquise Brown Ravens Jersey . On Sunday, head coach Patrick Roy said the teams leading scorer will skate at Mondays morning practice and the club will make a decision on his status for Game 6 at that point. http://www.cheapravensshoponline.com/Youth-marquise-brown-ravens-jersey/ . Louis Blues were workmanlike, methodical and -- most of all -- effective on Monday night.Every day pretty well, I check out the Blue Jays minor league stats to see whos trending upwards and whos tailing off. Saturday, the boxscore for Double A New Hampshire really caught my eye. Bostons farm club, the Portland Sea Dogs throttled the Fisher Cats right in their own ballpark. It was the most lopsided defeat in franchise history and the biggest shutout loss. That wasnt the biggest story though. It was the young man who started that game for New Hampshire, Aaron Sanchez. Regarded by many as the Blue Jays top pitching prospect, Sanchez didnt get out of the first inning. In fact he didnt even record an out. My first though was that maybe he was injured, but I called the Fisher Cats early Monday morning and was assured Aaron is alright. He just struggled mightily with his command. Sanchezs line was pretty ugly. He faced only six batters, walked four and a hit another, and the only batter to make contact reached on an error by first baseman Mike McDade. Though he didnt give up a single hit, Sanchez was charged with six runs, though only three were earned. Sanchezs entire season so far has been rife with growing pains. Hes 1-3 with a fairly respectable 3.54 ERA. However in just 48.1 innings, hes walked 34 men while hitting another seven versus 41 strikeouts. Its hardly time for the Blue Jays to panic. Sanchez looked great at spring training this year and wont turn 22 until July 1. Still, I wouldnt be looking for a quick call-up to the "Big Club", if any of the Jays starters falter or get hurt. Sanchez still has a ways to go on the developmental curve. On the flip side of that coin is right hander Deck McGuire. The Jays drafted him number 11 overall in 2010 out of Georgia Tech. In 2012, at Double A, he seemed to hit a wall and had a terrible season. Last year, again at Double A with New Hampshire, he had a bounce-back season and has continued to grow this year with the Fisher Cats. On Saturday after two strong starts with the Fisher Cats, McGuire was promoted to Triple A Buffalo. While not as highly regarded a prospect as Sanchez or Marcus Stroman, the Jays may yet get something out of McGuire, who turns 25 on June 3. After detailing Kyle Drabeks struggles over the past two columns, its only fair to mention how good he was last Thursday at Louisville. He pitched eight shutout innings, striking out five and walking only two in what became a 4-2 victory for the Bisons. Ricky Romero, whose struggles have been epic this season at Buffalo, was due to rejoin the club Monday after spending a few days in California to attend his brothers collegge graduation. Justice Hill Jersey. Ricky is pencilled in to start the Memorial weekend holiday Monday game at Indianappolis. The Blue Jays Mark Buehrle is well on his way to a 14th straight season of pitching 200 or more innings. As things stand right now, only three other pitchers have put together a string like that of 15 years or longer. The trio includes Gaylord Perry (15 years), knuckleballer Phil Niekro (15), and lefty Warren Spahn (17). All three are Hall of Famers. They also won over 300 games each. Buehrle (8-1) on the season has 194 wins at age 35. With their recent spurt, including six straight wins, the Blue Jays only have to go 62-49 the rest of the way to finish with 91 victories. Thats a number that should put them in the post-season for the first time since 1993. Around the Majors What in the name of Bobby Valentine has gone wrong with the Red Sox? The defending World Series champs, making like Valentines team of two years ago, have dropped 10 in a row and have been swept in consecutive series by Detroit and the Blue Jays at home and Tampa Bay on the road. Theyre in last place in the AL East, eight games back of the Blue Jays and six games out of the second Wild Card position. On the plus side, Bostons farm system is reputed to be strong, especially at Double A Portland. The Sea Dogs second baseman, Mookie Betts, is a sparkplug speedster who because of the presence of Dustin Pedroia may ultimately wind up in Bostons outfielder sooner rather than later. From the "go figure" file, the Texas Rangers have used a Major League-high 39 players so far this season and have utilized the disabled list 17 times. Yet in the same week they found out that Prince Fielder and Jurickson Profar were gone for the season, the Rangers went into Comerica Park in Detroit and took three out of four from the powerhouse Tigers, outscoring them 35-15. Houstons rookie right fielder George Springer has had his moments defensively, but he is really picking it up at the plate. Hes slugged four homers in the last three games, including two on Sunday to give him seven on the season to go with 22 runs batted in. The Astros though still have the worst record in the Majors at 19-32. Until the other day, I did not know that in his pitching days Babe Ruth threw sidearm. In his relatively brief time on the mound as a full-time starter, he was regarded as the best lefty in the Majors. The best pitcher period, in those days, was Walter Johnson. "The Big Train" also threw sidearm. Makes you wonder why that style barely exists in the Majors today. ' ' '